Posts Tagged ‘memory’
mnemonic: listening to birdsong
Each day, I walk the loop of our drive and stop for a moment at our concrete bench. I sit there and settle, listening to the sounds: a jet passing overhead, cars on the roadway, a neighbour using a saw. Then I start to hear the quiet mutter of the breeze, the rustling of leaves overhead, the occasional song of a bird.
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This morning I heard the ‘caw’ of a crow, the ‘yank, yank’ of a nuthatch, the winnowing of a snipe. When we assign a pattern of words to mimic and remember the sound of a bird call, it is known as a ‘mnemonic.’ Various other sounds are remembered that way: the ‘chug, chug’ of a train, the ‘drip, drip’ of a tap. Bird mnemonics known to almost everyone are the ‘chick-a-dee-dee-dee’ of the chickadee, the ‘who cooks for you?’ of the barred owl, and the ‘conk-la-ree’ of the red-winged blackbird.
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My new poetry book ‘mnemonic: soundscape and birdsong’ focusses on sounds in the woodland and along the shore. Most of the poems celebrate the way bird song can be a metaphor for the events in our lives. For example, the tapping of a pileated woodpecker on the wood of a backstop at the baseball diamond sounds like the connect of bat and ball during the game.
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My book ‘mnemonic’ includes my poems and pencil drawings.
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To obtain a copy of ‘mnemonic,’ take a visit to Dog Eared Books in Oromocto, or Westminster Bookmark in Fredericton. You can also order the book from Chapel Street Editions here, or from Amazon Canada here.
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I hope you enjoy my poetry and my sketches. You can find a comprehensive list of bird mnemonics at South Bay Birders Unlimited ‘Mnemonic Bird Songs’ here.
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All my best!
Jane Tims
new in the Meniscus Series: Meeting of Minds
For your summer read, visit another planet. The plants and animals are strange, the aliens are evil. But some things don’t change. Good memories. Love and friendship. Family.
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But sometimes memories, love and family are lost. When Odymn is captured by the Dock-winders, they erase ten years of her memory. There are two moons in the night sky. Her husband, Daniel, is a stranger. Food and even water are unfamiliar.
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Follow Odymn and Daniel as they get to know one another again. And when the Dock-winders capture Daniel, how will Odymn rescue him?
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Meniscus: Meeting of Minds is available now on Amazon, here, in paperback and ebook. By the end of June, you will find the paperback at Westminster Books in Fredericton. This is the ninth book in the Meniscus Series … time to introduce yourself to the series by reading Volume 1, here, or Volume 6, here. Lots of love and adventure.
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All my best,
Jane
nichepoetryandprose 